ShootingStock

Hints, tips and progress reports on my journey as a Microstock photographer.

Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Of course, in first place were Shutterstock but with dissapointing sales overall. Only a handful of On Demand sales and no Single downloads dragged the results down further.

Second place went to Istock with 2 credit downloads and 24 sub/Partner sales.

Dreamstime came just behind in third place with a 13 downloads. Certainly seeing more signs of life here recently.

Looking to Nissos island from Halki, Greece

Fourth place went to Redbubble with two product sales - a laptop case and a sticker.

Bigstock made fifth place with 13 downloads.

Sixth place for 123rf with 15 downloads. These were nearly all sub sales -made worse by my languishing in the low paying level 1. November results have been dire so my move back up to level 2 could be a while coming.

Fotolia brought up the rear in seventh place with just a single download.

Church of the Holy Trinity, Halki island

Not a spectacular month on any level and probaly a combination of the continuing influx of masses of images to all sites and fairly limited uploading on my part. Personal circumstances in recent months have limited my time available for uploading.

What I did upload concentrated on my last two trips (2015/2016) to the Greek island of Halki. Hopefully my November updates will follow soon though I can say that, if anything, November has been a tough month. Regards, David.

Thursday, 6 October 2016

A routine month in September without any signs of a big uplift as the Summer period comes to an end.

Starting with Shutterstock, things were slow here with a number of zero sales days through the month including a weekday. I cannot remember the last time that happened and is far from encouraging. A good crop of On Demand sales made up over 50% of sales, along with one modest Single sale.

In second place were Redbubble with four product sales. T shirts, poster and phone case were the products this month. Redbubble has certainly proved to be a site worth uploading to.

Istock took third place with 3 credit sales and a further 32 sub/pp downloads. Images continue to be readily

Pondamos beach on Halki island

accepted here though with a slow review time for non editorials.

Dreamstime managed fourth place with a welcome 10 downloads. Three of these related to media tycoon Robert Maxwell whose death 25 years ago was a subject of a Dreamtime blog I wrote. It's not unreasonable to think that the blog post helped get those sales though it can't be proved, of course.

123rf came in at fifth place with 14 downloads -pretty much all sub sales. Review problems seem to have returned here with several images pending for weeks now.

Bigstock dissappointed with just 2 downloads putting them in sixth place. This was way less than my usual sales with them so I am not sure what happened there

The restored chapel in the Crusader Knights castle on Halki

Bringing up the bottom with just one download each were Canstock, Mostphotos and Fotolia (in that order).

Uploading in September saw me continuing with images from my July trip to the Greek island of Halki. Whilst there I took a daytrip to the nearby island of Tilos where I got some photos of the abandoned village of Mikro Chorio. I was pleased to get two sales of this image within days of uploading to Shutterstock. My images of Amber Rudd also continued to sell following her promotion to Home Secretary and would expect that to be ongoing given her high profile. Regards, David.

Saturday, 3 September 2016

August saw a steady month with one surprise re-appearance from a long dry source.
Obviously Shutterstock was way out in front by a huge margin with a good crop of On Demand sales and one worthwhile Single Download.

Second place this month went to Istock with 4 credit sales and 20 PP/sub downloads. August also saw the deadline pass where you can no longer delete individual images without good reason. This was billed as a move to improve customer experience with images they had bookmarked not having dissappeared. Cynics suggest that this was a precursor to a major change that would lead to contributors deleting images in protest. I expect we'll see soon enough -especially as Istock have form for announcing major changes in September.

Third place went to Dreamstime with 4 downloads. It was a tense month with no sales at all until the 18th

Nikos Express arrives on Halki island

when I had one 35c sub followed by another long gap right to the last few days of the month. Like July, a higher paying credit sale turned things around -a bit.

In fourth place 123RF recovered from my WME in July to get 12 downloads. It's still a puzzle why I only got 2 downloads the previous month.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with 11 downloads. My various images of the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) did well with 7 downloads over several days - presumably to the same buyer.

Sixth place was taken by Fotolia with 2 downloads -both paying reasonable amounts.

Redbubble dropped to seventh place with just one sale of a sticker. I had hoped my July run of sales would continue but sadly not.

Livadia harbour on Tilos island

The surprise came in eighth place with Yaymicro producing their first sale of the year. In fact the first sale on the Yay site itself (rather than Partners) since 2014. Strangely, the sale was dated from May but has only just appeared. I recently took the sad decision to drop Yay for my new uploads because, frankly, there was little point in continuing. It will take more than one sale to change my mind though especially as editorial uploads are not even being placed for sale on their site - reviewed and accepted yes but not for sale.

Finally in ninth place were Mostphotos with one very small sub sale. I'd probaly drop them too but they do provide another form of back up with the ability to download your own images there.

Limited uploading in August saw me working on images from my July trip to the Greek island of Halki with uploads of the Nikos Express ferry arriving at Emborio harbour and also some of Livadia harbour from my day trip to Tilos island. Hopefully, September will see the end of the slow Summer months though, as yet, I haven't seen any signs of that. We'll see. Regards, David.

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

An average Summer month in July with just a couple of surprises along the way.

First place, as ever,went to Shutterstock with a reasonable though not great month. A good smattering of On Demand sales and one modest (though welcome) Single download.

Racing up to second place were Redbubble with no less than six product sales. These ran the gamut of prints, stickers, iphone case, and my first drawstring bag. A variety of images appeared on these from cats to Greek islands to Thin Lizzy singer Phil Lynott. It was quite exciting to see the "You've made a sale" emails keep arriving throughout the month.

A pleasant surprise from Dreamstime who made it to third place with 6 downloads. Of note here were the return of high paid credit sales with two images netting over $6 each in commission. Been a while since I had seen any of those.

Phil Lynott - popular at Redbubble

Istock took fourth place with just 2 credit downloads and a weak 17 sub and PP downloads - in fact just one sale from Thinkstock. As I have said before, I assume Getty are steering Thinkstock customers towards the subs packages at Istock as the PP sales have steadily diminished.

Bigstock were in fifth place with 10 mainly sub downloads.

In sixth place were Canstockphoto with a rare sale for me.

In seventh and bottom place were 123rf with just 2 sub downloads all month. This was certainly the unpleasant surprise of July. No idea what happened there. June saw 18 downloads and the first few days of August have already produced 6 sales. July did see the introduction of a new contributor interface and I kept hoping my sales just weren't being reported promptly but this was, sadly, not the case. I can't remember the last time (if ever) that I have had such low sales at 123. The danger here is that when the last 12 months credits are calculated in the future my awful July could push me back down to the lower paying Level 1 commission.

Pigs head - large credit sale at Dreamstime

Nothing from Fotolia (or the rest) in July including my seventh month running with no sales on FineArtAmerica -disappointing to say the least (especially when rival Redbubble is doing well).

No new uploading in July as I spent two wonderful weeks on the little Greek island of Halki. This was the second year running I have been there so took less images than I normally would. However, a day trip to the nearby island of Tilos had me maximising my time there to get as many images as possible. In a lucky break, my visit coincided with the arrival of dozens of yachts taking part in the Rhodes Cup yacht race which made for some good images.

The changes in Government which took place while I was away saw my local Member of Parliament Amber Rudd promoted to the senior position of Home Secretary and I was able to see downloads of her racking up in my sales reports from all the agencies that take Editorial (123rf excluded of course). Regards, David.

Saturday, 9 July 2016

In first place, no prizes for guessing that Shutterstock came top with around double the earnings of my second place site. A good crop of On Demand sales in June but only one small Single sale.

A strong second place for Istock with 9 credit sales and a further 27 PP and sub downloads. Interesting to note that of the latter only one was from the PP. Is Thinkstock being run down in favour of promoting sub sales at Istock? Trying to predict what Getty will do next is a near impossible task - so I'll just await developments.

Dragon Lily seed heads on Halki island

Third place went to Redbubble with 6 sales. A good mix of products including mugs,T shirts, stickers. In a new move they have just announced the scrapping of their minimum payout level. Commission on any sales will just be paid out by the 15th of the following month regardless of amount. Good news for those that do not sell much and have been sitting on a balance in their account.

Fourth place went to an improved Dreamstime with 16 downloads. Good to see a bit more action here but a
long way from where they were for me.

Fifth place saw Bigstock also with 16 downloads. My music festival images were the best seller here.

123rf managed sixth place with 18 downloads. Most of these were sub sales which pulled the income down. It's been a while since I saw some large credit sales at 123.

Fotolia were in seventh place with 3 downloads.

At eighth place were MostPhotos which for the second month running saw 2 subscription downloads.

Agioi Anargyroi church on Agistri island

No sales over at Picfair (still stuck on just 2 sales ever). My experiment with their bulk price adjuster came to an end when I reverted all my images back to £10 per license. My test to see if a £5 level would generate more sales suggested to me that pricing isn't the issue. I really want Picfair to work and intend to keep uploading.

Recent uploads included some shots of the Hastings branch of British Home Stores (BHS). Founded in 1928, the Department Store chain of 163 UK shops is now closing down for good -with no viable buyer for the business found. Sad to see a long standing part of the High Street going but, if I'm honest, I cannot remember the last time I even went in the store let alone bought anything. Other uploads included shots of Dragon Lily seed heads taken on the Greek island of Halki last year. These proved hard to ID but I put out requests for help on several forums resulting in several suggestions but Dragon Lily came in as the most credible -based on a lot of research. Google reverse image search didn't help at all -just returning lots of images of green olives! Finally, I continued with my uploads from my May trip to Athens including the church of Agioi Anargyroi on the little island of Agistri. Regards, David.

Total Pageviews

Follow by Email

About Me

A stock photographer who has worked in the industry since the seventies. Now working within the microstock market, I contribute to most major sites. I also have two blogs -one about stock photography and one about my favourite destination, the small islands of Greece. I live by the sea at Hastings in East Sussex, England.